New Syrian Rebel PM: More Ties to U.S. Brotherhood Network Emerge

Yesterday, ClarionProject.orgreported how the newly elected interim Prime Minister of the Syrian Opposition Coalition, Ghassan Hitto, was backed by the Syrian Muslim Brotherhood and was a Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) official, a U.S. Muslim Brotherhood entity. More disturbing information has since come out about Hitto’s role in the U.S. Muslim Brotherhood network.

ISNA and several of its components are listed in a 1991 U.S. Muslim Brotherhood strategy memo as one of “our organizations and the organizations of our friends.” The Brotherhood describes its agenda as “a kind of grand jihad in eliminating and destroying Western civilization from within…”

At ISNA, Hitto worked “in the technology department, bookstore and convention planning.” The ISNA bookstore and conventions have long featured Islamist rhetoric, and Hitto helped make that happen. His wife worked as an “assistant in the development office.”

The article includes praise for Hitto and his wife from Sayyid Syeed, a senior ISNA official who is now the group’s point man for interfaith relations. Syeed is quoted as saying that Hitto’s selection “means they are committing themselves to a practical, moderate and balanced understanding of Islam.” Yet, a new documentary titled The Grand Deception includes footage of Syeed saying in 2006, “our job is to change the constitution of America.”

The newspaper reports that Hitto also worked for the North American Islamic Trust (NAIT). Continuing the pattern, NAIT was also designated an unindicted co-conspirator in the Holy Land trial and listed as a U.S. Muslim Brotherhood entity. NAIT, like ISNA and CAIR’s predecessor, is also identified in the 1991 U.S. Muslim Brotherhood memo as one of its fronts.

The Independentadds that Hitto was a board member of a Muslim American Society chapter. Federal prosecutors said in 2008 that “MAS was founded as the overt arm of the Muslim Brotherhood in America.” Abdurrahman Alamoudi, a convicted U.S. Muslim Brotherhood member, said “Everyone knows that MAS is the Muslim Brotherhood.”

In addition, as we reported, Hitto also served on the board of the Muslim Legal Fund of America, which raised money to defend the Elashi brothers that were convicted in the Holy Land trial. The Global Muslim Brotherhood Daily Reportfound that the media called Hitto a “friend of the Elashi family” in 2002 and that he’s linked to the Islamic Association for Palestine, a now-defunct Brotherhood entity that birthed CAIR.

There is no possibility that Hitto was just an average Muslim who became involved with his local CAIR chapter without knowing its background. He has been an official of six groups with strong Brotherhood links, including four active groups identified by the government as U.S. Muslim Brotherhood entities and he has endorsements from some of their top leaders.

The secular democratic activists in Syria see his selection for what it is: A Muslim Brotherhood takeover of the opposition. Burhan Ghalioun, Walid al-Bunni and Kamal al-Labwani are exactly the type of leaders we’d want to lead a new Syria. Here’s what al-Labwani had to say about Hitto’s selection: “The government is controlled by the Muslim Brotherhood and the Qatar government. We will be against this government and will not give it legality. Democracy is from the land and from the people not from a council that is composed by the government of Qatar.”

These are the Syrians we should be listening to and allying with. They were ignored by the Obama Administration, quite possibly due to the advice of CAIR, ISNA and the other groups that the administration regularly consults with.

And now, they have been defeated by the Syrian Muslim Brotherhood with the help of the “moderate” American Muslim Brotherhood legacy groups and our supposed “allies” in Qatar.

For too long has Pakistan provided safe haven to the Taliban and many terrorist organisations, but those days are over.

- Mike Pence Vice President, United States of America

To say that Islam and Islamism have nothing to do with it is to deny any responsibility to act to our fellow Muslims. We must help them, we must help them to fight within themselves these totalitarian ideologies of Salafism or the Muslim Brotherhood.

- Manuel Valls Former French prime minister

We are going to maintain our commitment on the ground [in Syria] as long as we need to, to support our partners and prevent the return of terrorist groups.

- Eric Pahon Pentagon spokesman

Those that adhere to this ideology are really irreligious criminals who use a perverted, what the president has called a ‘wicked’ interpretation of religion in an effort to recruit young, impressionable people to their cause.

- H.R. McMaster National Security Adviser

Female circumcision has nothing to do with frigidity but that doesn't mean I defend female circumcision. It's a crime in the full sense of the word, but it doesn't cause frigidity at all.

- Heba Kotb Certified Egyptian sex therapist & TV show host

Indonesian women who seek to serve their country by joining the security forces shouldn’t have to subject themselves to an abusive and discriminatory ‘virginity test’ to do so.

- Nisha Varia Indonesian women’s rights advocacy director

Recognizing that religion can be a primary motivator for terrorism need not lead to the unwarranted condemnation of Islam.

- Dr. Lorne Dawson Director of the Canadian Network for Research on Terrorism, Security, and Society

About

Films

The Clarion Project (formerly Clarion Fund) is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization dedicated to educating both policy makers and the public about the growing phenomenon of Islamic extremism. The Clarion Project is committed to working towards safeguarding human rights for all peoples.

Copyright 2018 Clarion Project Inc. All Rights Reserved

Sign up to our Newsletter

Clarion Project

Films

The Clarion Project (formerly Clarion Fund) is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization dedicated to educating both policy makers and the public about the growing phenomenon of Islamic extremism. The Clarion Project is committed to working towards safeguarding human rights for all peoples.